A couple of observations: It seems like the pattern of pandemic response is highly privatised. Not that there is no response at all, but that, as Naomi Klein wrote years ago in The Shock Doctrine, crises are seen by the wealthy as opportunities. This is why we disinvest in public health but fund the research of pharmaceutical companies who can then make super-profits of vaccines that they developed with public money and publicly enforced patents. It's why so many corporations profited so handsomely off the pandemic, and even now corporate egg producers profit off of avian flu. This is the pattern we can expect with every future crisis until and unless we overhaul our predatory political and economic system.
The other observation is that it seems necessary for those of us who are preparing and who strive to be COVID-safe to organize and build (virtual or real) communities. I was so elated and grateful to discover the existence of the COVIDMeetups network when I joined this substack! Individual and family lifestyle changes are relatively easy, but these are the kinds of crises that only adaptive communities can possibly survive.
Thank you for your writing and research. I thought about you this morning as I witnessed the dumbass parent across the courtyard giving his 3-year-old bread to feed the birds on the patio. (a violation of the rules in this complex - but who follows the rules anymore?) The birds were touching the kid's hands. Perhaps I should make a copy of your article and tape it to their door...
Great read, thank you! I have neighbors on either side of my house that have backyard chicken coops. My dog regularly goes in our backyard, which has a thick fence that one of the coops borders on. We live near a nature center, so I worry the backyard flocks could get sick eventually and spread it to my dog. Any advice on how I could avoid that scenario?
Jessica mentioned: 'The director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Institute says the poultry industry won’t be able to “sustain itself… if we continue to see annual surges.”'
Just in case anyone is wondering about the credentials of this director - it's Dr. Michael Osterholm who is one of the foremost qualified and trusted experts. He's definitely not an alarmist. I've been listening to him since the start of Covid and if he's worried (and Jessica is worried) - then so am I....
BTW, I've been aware of the Avian Flu for awhile, but I didn't connect it to our bird feeder. This has been my wife's favorite viewing pastime for decades. It's away from the house and outside our dog's fenced in area - but the birds can still poop inside the fence. It'll have to be decommission now - bummer! Thanks for the warning.
H1N1 is the 1918 flu; it originated in birds, spread to pigs as the intermedite species, and killed over 50 million people worldwide over three years.
The history of that great dying was written up a century later, and it makes horrifying reading. There are a few very old people left who lived through it, or lost relatives to it. Few people read about it.
I don't blame the wild birds. The problem is the commercial egg farms, where chickens are kept in horrific conditions. They incubate the disease and spread it to the wild birds, who migrate. we were warned about industrial farming decades ago, and no one listened.
I had bird flu in 2020. It lasted an entire month. I was hallucinating at certain points. I’m assuming it was from a psychotically high fever. It’s seriously no joke at all. Way worse than COVID-19 was. Holy hell.
Here we go again, hup two, three four. Time to walk into death again, hup two, three, four. I agree, it is only a matter of time. The government is being told by corporate to dial it back as it is bad for business. We can't have that now. Profits mean more to the executives than healthy workers, and as pointed out here, they will do everything they can to run the workers into the ground until one day there won't be enough to operate those corporations. Small businesses are already feeling the loss. It is only going to get worse but the men in the high towers won't get the memo until no is left to deliver the memos. Then what will the governments do? They are on the hook for providing labor. They will be caught in a vise between big business which pays for their re-elections and the few voters left healthy enough to even vote anymore. It's coming.
Jessica, I would like to add some other pieces of the puzzle that seem to be ignored. Along with the toxic air created by fossil fuels and destruction of our forests that compromise our immune system, there are other issues that trash our biomemes. Prescription Medications and many street drugs after years of use render our immune system unable to deal with these viruses and bad bugs. Then on top of that the food industry spends billions advertising completely unhealthy foods and diets that often contain chemicals from the likes of Round Up. Our bodies are tough, however 24/7 attacks on our systems are going to leave us wide open for viruses that we might normally fend off. Living a healthy life style seems to be an anomaly now. And vested interests want to keep it that way. The upside is we can change our habits and life styles for the better. Your articles do include empowering us to change and be proactive.
Humanity has *clarified we suck at learning from our mistakes. The fact we’ve royally FAILED managing the pandemic - unable to do the ONE simple thing like wearing a damn mask that would decrease transmission of an airborne virus ffs shows our pathetic limits. The clock is ticking - we deserve our ultimate demise. Humans arrogant ignorance will not survive the consequences of the imbalanced ecosystems of our planet solely dependent upon our nurturing. Collectively we are not capable of hearing the screaming signals because we👏are👏not👏listening👏! We are seriously the scoundrel quacks.
I live in a high rise building that's basically infested with pigeons, and the housing authority don't care. I have put spikes wherever i can put spikes, but there are plenty of other places they can roost that i can't do anything about. They shit down my front door, and onto my balcony. Netting can't stop this. My cats go outside on the balcony. I'm in trouble.
Assuming most viruses are airborne would be to unnecessarily frighten people and promote a loony germophobic culture - but getting concerned about H5N1 HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is entirely legitimate. I was concerned enough to research making an emergency response vaccine to it - and you'll be glad to hear that at least one company (Medicago Inc) probably has plant-made vaccine stockpiled. Only for humans though - and we need to get vaccines into domestic avians NOW!!
I’m most concerned about the impact on our birds. A world without birds is not one I would want to live in. And our horrific agricultural practices are to blame for this rapid spread.
I've read that songbirds don't get or spread it, but I'm guessing that's not 100%. It's mostly spreading through waterfowl and poultry. I've felt like if birds are hungry, they're more able to fight the flu if they're well-fed, but I could be wrong. In any case, there's obviously cause for lots of concern not just for us, but all animals, which is really sad.
A couple of observations: It seems like the pattern of pandemic response is highly privatised. Not that there is no response at all, but that, as Naomi Klein wrote years ago in The Shock Doctrine, crises are seen by the wealthy as opportunities. This is why we disinvest in public health but fund the research of pharmaceutical companies who can then make super-profits of vaccines that they developed with public money and publicly enforced patents. It's why so many corporations profited so handsomely off the pandemic, and even now corporate egg producers profit off of avian flu. This is the pattern we can expect with every future crisis until and unless we overhaul our predatory political and economic system.
The other observation is that it seems necessary for those of us who are preparing and who strive to be COVID-safe to organize and build (virtual or real) communities. I was so elated and grateful to discover the existence of the COVIDMeetups network when I joined this substack! Individual and family lifestyle changes are relatively easy, but these are the kinds of crises that only adaptive communities can possibly survive.
Thanks again for these essays!
Thank you for your writing and research. I thought about you this morning as I witnessed the dumbass parent across the courtyard giving his 3-year-old bread to feed the birds on the patio. (a violation of the rules in this complex - but who follows the rules anymore?) The birds were touching the kid's hands. Perhaps I should make a copy of your article and tape it to their door...
Great read, thank you! I have neighbors on either side of my house that have backyard chicken coops. My dog regularly goes in our backyard, which has a thick fence that one of the coops borders on. We live near a nature center, so I worry the backyard flocks could get sick eventually and spread it to my dog. Any advice on how I could avoid that scenario?
Jessica mentioned: 'The director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Institute says the poultry industry won’t be able to “sustain itself… if we continue to see annual surges.”'
Just in case anyone is wondering about the credentials of this director - it's Dr. Michael Osterholm who is one of the foremost qualified and trusted experts. He's definitely not an alarmist. I've been listening to him since the start of Covid and if he's worried (and Jessica is worried) - then so am I....
BTW, I've been aware of the Avian Flu for awhile, but I didn't connect it to our bird feeder. This has been my wife's favorite viewing pastime for decades. It's away from the house and outside our dog's fenced in area - but the birds can still poop inside the fence. It'll have to be decommission now - bummer! Thanks for the warning.
H1N1 is the 1918 flu; it originated in birds, spread to pigs as the intermedite species, and killed over 50 million people worldwide over three years.
The history of that great dying was written up a century later, and it makes horrifying reading. There are a few very old people left who lived through it, or lost relatives to it. Few people read about it.
I don't blame the wild birds. The problem is the commercial egg farms, where chickens are kept in horrific conditions. They incubate the disease and spread it to the wild birds, who migrate. we were warned about industrial farming decades ago, and no one listened.
I had bird flu in 2020. It lasted an entire month. I was hallucinating at certain points. I’m assuming it was from a psychotically high fever. It’s seriously no joke at all. Way worse than COVID-19 was. Holy hell.
Here we go again, hup two, three four. Time to walk into death again, hup two, three, four. I agree, it is only a matter of time. The government is being told by corporate to dial it back as it is bad for business. We can't have that now. Profits mean more to the executives than healthy workers, and as pointed out here, they will do everything they can to run the workers into the ground until one day there won't be enough to operate those corporations. Small businesses are already feeling the loss. It is only going to get worse but the men in the high towers won't get the memo until no is left to deliver the memos. Then what will the governments do? They are on the hook for providing labor. They will be caught in a vise between big business which pays for their re-elections and the few voters left healthy enough to even vote anymore. It's coming.
Jessica, I would like to add some other pieces of the puzzle that seem to be ignored. Along with the toxic air created by fossil fuels and destruction of our forests that compromise our immune system, there are other issues that trash our biomemes. Prescription Medications and many street drugs after years of use render our immune system unable to deal with these viruses and bad bugs. Then on top of that the food industry spends billions advertising completely unhealthy foods and diets that often contain chemicals from the likes of Round Up. Our bodies are tough, however 24/7 attacks on our systems are going to leave us wide open for viruses that we might normally fend off. Living a healthy life style seems to be an anomaly now. And vested interests want to keep it that way. The upside is we can change our habits and life styles for the better. Your articles do include empowering us to change and be proactive.
Humanity has *clarified we suck at learning from our mistakes. The fact we’ve royally FAILED managing the pandemic - unable to do the ONE simple thing like wearing a damn mask that would decrease transmission of an airborne virus ffs shows our pathetic limits. The clock is ticking - we deserve our ultimate demise. Humans arrogant ignorance will not survive the consequences of the imbalanced ecosystems of our planet solely dependent upon our nurturing. Collectively we are not capable of hearing the screaming signals because we👏are👏not👏listening👏! We are seriously the scoundrel quacks.
I live in a high rise building that's basically infested with pigeons, and the housing authority don't care. I have put spikes wherever i can put spikes, but there are plenty of other places they can roost that i can't do anything about. They shit down my front door, and onto my balcony. Netting can't stop this. My cats go outside on the balcony. I'm in trouble.
I see what you did there.
Assuming most viruses are airborne would be to unnecessarily frighten people and promote a loony germophobic culture - but getting concerned about H5N1 HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is entirely legitimate. I was concerned enough to research making an emergency response vaccine to it - and you'll be glad to hear that at least one company (Medicago Inc) probably has plant-made vaccine stockpiled. Only for humans though - and we need to get vaccines into domestic avians NOW!!
Wait until we see what is being vomited out of the melting cryosphere!
Pestilence: Another Consequence of Losing the Cryosphere and the Permafrost
https://kevinhester.live/2020/08/21/pestilence-another-consequence-of-losing-the-cryosphere-and-the-permafrost/
I’m most concerned about the impact on our birds. A world without birds is not one I would want to live in. And our horrific agricultural practices are to blame for this rapid spread.
I've read that songbirds don't get or spread it, but I'm guessing that's not 100%. It's mostly spreading through waterfowl and poultry. I've felt like if birds are hungry, they're more able to fight the flu if they're well-fed, but I could be wrong. In any case, there's obviously cause for lots of concern not just for us, but all animals, which is really sad.
Fortunately Ebola, though quite deadly, was harder to transmit.
These airborne viruses are quite different.! And yes we keep our dog, an akita named Nakita, INSIDE-